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“To the know the truth is to know the self, and to know the self is to know the Mecca...”
- Pete Rock



Hip-Hop isn’t dead, it’s only in a witness protection program. A few trusted disciples of the culture have been entrusted with its care until the world is ready to respect the real again. If you decode their government tags you can seek out these gatekeepers, and maybe they’ll take audience with you. Take for example Malik Coward out of Jamaica, Queens, a renaissance b-boy that is known in some circles as M.C. The streets know him as Mr. Mecca.

“Actually it started as a breakdance name, short for ‘Mechanical,’” explains the artist who used to pop and lock for loose money on cardboard mats outside of The World Trade Center. “Went from that to just plain Mecc.”

Since 2000 year the talented lyricist has made a name in New York’s underground as not only a formidable battle MC, but as a commanding live performer. He cut his teeth at Joe’s Pub and B.B. Kings thanks to crowd-pleasing favorites like “Beastin’” and “Insecure.” Now the goateed soloist is finally releasing his debut CD, Last Exit with German producer, Croup.

Growing up across the boulevard from the notorious 40 Projects, Mecc didn’t have to travel far to find trouble. Fortunately, as a youngster he discovered a worthwhile escape that would become the foundation for his professional life.

“There was music, breakdancing, graffiti. We were bombing trains when I was 11 or 12. I was in the streets, but not like THAT.”

His mother had a habit of moving them around. Mecca called various parts of the tri-state area home before his mother finally moved to Pennsylvania. At 17, not wanting to leave yet another group of friends behind, Mecc stayed in New York on his own.

“I went to my grandfather’s house that was being watched by my aunt. We didn’t get along too tough though,” he recalls. “When she past away we found out she had some gambling debts so the bank came and repossessed the entire house. I was homeless for like 8 months.”

Thanks to the generosity of friends Mecc was able to get on his feet securing a job in the deli department of a local Keyfood. “I had a different kind of cut buddy,” he jokes. “Damn near lost a finger twice.”

After a brief stay with his maternal grandmother he found a basement apartment and began taking on shifts at Banana Republic.

“It was the worst job I ever had,” he says flatly. “They tried to control everything about you. Where you could sit, what you could wear…I was literally having nightmares. I would wake up, walk outside of my house and everyone was dead and they all wanted me to be just like them.”

Mecca’s break into music came when obtained at internship at The Source magazine. Once the The Source gig became permanent he left both Banana Republic and Keyfood jobs and worked in the circulation department of the Hip-Hop Bible.

“The Source was hot music, dress how you want. I couldn’t be around nothing else.”

Around 2000, once the world didn’t blow up from a computer glitch, Mecca began to frequent The Tea Party, a gathering of MCs and poets held on Sunday nights at Brooklyn’s YWCA. This is where he met Substantial and Pack FM and formed the group Dominion. With no recorded music they built a fanbase performing at spots like Spiral lounge, Baby Jupiter and CBGB’s.

“The underground scene was so pure then that people would buy your music from you at the shows,” says Mecca. “We didn’t have anything in the stores. Substantial went to Pratt and he’d send me a beat at my job and we’d come up with our lyrics. We wouldn’t hear each other until we got on stage to perform. Finally we managed to record one joint, ‘Sky’s The Limit.’ I haven’t heard it since then.”

Eventually Dominion dissolved as Pack and Substantial focused on their solo careers. Though they were all still part of a larger collective called The Plague, Mecca had no intentions to keep recording until he was urged by QN5’s Tonedeff to pursue a career on his own.

“He was basically like, I got a beat, I’mma give it to you, come up with something. It was the first song I’d ever recorded by myself, “Come On Now.” It’s still one of my most crowd-pleasingest songs.”

Once he was awarded The Source’s Unsigned Hype, Mecca felt it was time for him to branch out on his own. While he was performing he realized that he didn’t have any product to sell. So with the help of a few producers he released a mixtape, Throwback Vol. 1 but still wanted to do original material.

In his last days at Qn5 Music Tone introduced Mecca to German producer Croup. The two were originally going to just do an EP, but after recording a few songs Mecca felt they should do more. The resulting project is Last Exit with the popular “Swagger” leading the charge.

“We just shot a video for that,” Mecca says proudly. “That was done just off the strength of people liking the song and they wanted to see it on video. The directors Adam and Travis, Gotti hooked that up at Sandbox. Manu, Rob and Lindsay helped. I wrote the whole video but I couldn’t do it without them.”

Other stand out tracks include the bouncy body rock of “Classick” and the lyrically nimble “Calm Down” with enough iron bars to lock down the most stubborn of listeners.

“I just talk about real life on some real topic shit. We ain’t all thugs,” says Mecca who doesn’t drink or smoke. “I’ve punched many people in the face and never sold a drug in my life. I’ve seen the hardest gangstas laugh their asses off and eat cereal. Nobody is grinding it out 24 hours a day. There are other parts of the hood besides that and if you're listening, I'll show you.”